Giveaway: Evenflo ProComfort Symphony DLX car seat
Well, it’s been fun, summer house. Yesterday, we packed up our sandals and our sunscreen and our carnival fish and drove back to our apartment in Manhattan.
Mike at the wheel and me in the passenger seat once again. I was just getting used to being the driver!
Camp drop-offs, playdate pick-ups, grocery store visits, all added up to a lot of time shuttling my kids around town. For most people, I’m sure this is no big thing. For a Manhattanite who hasn’t driven a car regularly since I was a senior in high school, it was quite a novelty.
I’m gonna miss driving.
I’ll miss the conversations I would have with Mazzy to and from camp. I’ll miss our spontaneous trips to Target, stopping for soft serve on the way. I’ll miss the late nights driving home, the two of them passed out peacefully in their car seats, way past bedtime.
On particularly late nights, I would often drive around for a few extra minutes to make sure both girls were sound asleep so I could transfer them hassle-free into bed when we got home. So much easier that way. And if their teeth rot from lack of brushing, they’ll get a new set soon, right? Fortunately, Mazzy never called me out for passing the turn to our house. Although, one time she did notice we passed the diner twice.
MAZZY: Hey! Why are we passing the diner again, Mom???
ME: That’s a different diner.
Total lie.
Harlow always fell asleep easily since she’s been riding in the lap of luxury, aka her new Symphony DLX car seat, part of Evenflo’s ProComfort Series. Its innovative gel matrix technology reduces pressure point build-up which alleviates discomfort (short term and long term). The added comfort creates a safer, more peaceful ride, since so many accidents occur due to a parent/driver tending to an uncomfortable child in the backseat.
The Symphony also makes your baby look like she is riding in first class.
The ride home was without incident which is lovely for the drive but boring for blog fodder. I blame Evenflo.
Especially since riding shot gun on a family road trip has the potential to be one of the most eventful jobs imaginable. Over the past four and a half years, I can’t tell you how many times I have unbuckled my seatbelt, slipped off my shoes and climbed into the backseat to tend to my children. Risking life and limb to get them a snack, locate a dropped pacifier or search the packed bags in the back for a forgotten blankie.
Every time, I imagine the police report if there is an accident…
“Father and children unharmed. Mother’s back lodged into the roof of the car with her shoes sticking out of her ears, a bag of goldfish crackers dangling from her mouth and a severed left arm just inches away from a dropped miniature Frozen figurine on the floor of the backseat.”
Is it just me or is the “ding ding ding” of an unbuckled seatbelt one of the most annoying sounds on earth? As if, in addition to the agony of listening to your crying child, you need to be reminded your life is now at stake!
I won’t pretend Mazzy and Harlow didn’t request anything on our drive back to NYC. They still asked for snacks and Harlow dropped her pacifier once, but nothing required me to move to the back. They seemed pretty content in their car seats (they even have cupholders!), plus they had each other for entertainment.
Mazzy tried to make Harlow laugh and Harlow made weird sounds to get Mazzy to copy her while Mike and I exchanged “don’t jinx this!” side glances since they seemed to be doing all the work for us. We listened to music, we played “I Spy” and I dreamed of future road trips when games like Geography and Ghost become viable options. Then they both passed out.
(We’ve always had a “no screen time in the car” policy so our kids would use that time to relax and take a nap. Mazzy and Harlow don’t even know watching an iPad in the car is an option.)
It helped that Mazzy was riding in a new seat too, since Evenflo was kind enough to send us their ProComfort Amp LX High Back booster. “I GET TO WEAR THE REGULAR SEATBELT, MOM!!!!!” You would have thought she was sixteen and we handed her the keys to a brand new car.
God help us, I hope that day takes its time getting here. Her first day of kindergarten is tomorrow!
Thankfully, I am taking her to school on a public bus. I think accident rates are probably pretty high for moms who can’t stop crying too.
As for Harlow, she’s trading grass for concrete but I bet she’ll be happy as long as she’s got somewhere to run and lots of interesting things to look at. Our view of the creek behind the summer house is pretty awesome, but so is our view of the city.
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THIS WEEK’S GIVEAWAY:
Today, I’m excited to give away one last Evenflo ProComfort Symphony DLX All-In-One Car Seat ($249.99)!
All you have to do is…
1) Follow both Evenflo and Mommy Shorts on facebook and then leave a comment below answering the following question:
What is your favorite car game?
2) Please like and/or share this post if you enter. It’s not required, but it would be nice!
That’s it! You can find the official rules here.
Winner will be selected randomly and announced on September 5th.
WINNER UPDATE: This week’s winner is Michelle Canga who’s three-year-old loves to play “find the water towers”. Congratulations! He will now be looking for water towers from the comfort of his Evenflo Symphony DLX!
Last week’s winner was Julie Hill and the week before was Sabrina, who talked about her 16 hour nightmare of a road trip with her 13-year-old and 10-month-old.
That’s the last of my Evenflo car seat giveaways. Please contact ilana@mommyshorts.com to claim your prizes!
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This post was sponsored by Evenflo but all thoughts and opinions are my own.
My little one isn’t quiet old enough to play car games yet, but I know MY mom’s favorite was “The Quiet Game” 🙂
My baby girl is only 11 months old but our favorite car game is to make goofy noises back and forth to each other.
My 3 yr old loves to play I spy, usually with someting she sees in our car. My 1 yr old love to clap her hands and have you clap in unison with her…the whole ride 🙂
My son is only 6 months so not quite old enough for car games. My favorite game to play with my husband is punch buggy!
I can’t enter the contest, but hands down my favourite game is “Who can be quietest the longest?”. Not only does it actually make the kids WANT to be quiet (as it is a competition after all – even there the only prize is “yay, you won!”) but to be completely honest – the sounds that do get made and then belly-laughed over, and the countless interruptions to the game with “pause – um Mommy it doesn’t count if you burp you know. Because you can’t help burping, that’s life to burp! Ok, end pause” provides not the goal of “quiet” but the goal of pure entertainment! 🙂
I liked looking for the different licence plates when I was a kid- my kiddo isnt old enough for games except peek-a-book right now 🙂
My favorite car game is “let’s read a book” – my son’s favorite car game is how many times can a put my foot in Mommy’s mouth.
Our favorite game to play in the car is, “who can make the best ______ noise?” It’s usually an animal or car noise. My husband and I get a good laugh from each other’s animal noises. My 5 and 3 yr old love it, and sometimes I hear them playing it in their beds at night time.
My parents hated it, but my brother and I loved to play ‘punch buggy’ when we were little. You know- slugging the person next to you when you see a Volkswagon Beetle? Good times!
The letter game! We love to play this with my 3 year old because she is just learning her letters and loves to find them on random items. It is really fun. And BTW I like you both on FB.
Eye spy
Our favorite car game is “who turned out the lights?!” When we go in and out of overpasses and in and out of tunnels. Eye spy with a three year old is another favorite since it is often narrated by incredibly creative and imaginative stories that have all of us laughing! Would LOVE this new even flow car seat for my 15 month old who really really really needs to graduate out of her infant car seat…
Our favorite game is the color game, my son and I pick out a color we see and then we have to guess what object it is. Hey for a 2 year old it’s an awesome game.
We like to sing in the car! My son is only 15 months, but he claps along to BINGO, does the animal sounds to Old MacDonald, and chimes in with “Yum yum” in Five Little Speckled Frogs! 🙂
Right now our favorite car game is who can annoy mom the most! Whether it is screaming for a dropped toy, dropped piece of candy, having to use the potty, or singing Old McDonald and adding different animals and making up noises for them. But the truth is there is no real winner. When Mommy finally gets annoyed, “crickets” is all we hear.
Our newest favorite is “I Spy with my little eye”. It’s so fun b/c my youngest plays too now! Although it always goes the same way….
J-“I spy with my little eye something green”
Me-“The grass?”
J-“NO!”
Me-“The trees? Street signs? Your shirt?”
J-“No! It’s the grass silly!!!”
I never win!!! LOL
My little Guy is only 11 months, so too young for games. But when he gets super upset in the car the only thing that calms him down is watching videos of himself on my iphone, lol. I like your no screen time in the car policy, I will have to start implementing that one soon. He is starting to outgrow his infant car seat so winning the fab new eve flow would be just perfect!
The only car game our 10 month old will let is play is infinite rounds of Old McDonald. We are getting really good at putting anything we can think of on that farm!
I Spy was always a favorite, but since my little guy is so small, it’s mainly what funny noises and faces can we make at each other. Daddy plays chauffeur while Mommy rides in back with little man.
Our favorite car game is animal sounds! And singing wheels on the bus endlessly.
The midtown tunnel shot always makes me sad, you get to the other side and you’re back in hot, smelly NYC all over again.
We like to play the ABC game, finding signs containing words in alphabetical order.
Mr. Potato Head is probably our favorite car game. Though, it’s not very practical with ears and noses and accessories flying all over the car floor!
“I spy with my little eyeeeee”…but what does “little eye” mean? Don’t know, don’t care.
What is your favorite car game?
Not sure what the name is, but basically you have to find all the letters of the alphabet, in order, on something outside the car (license place, street signs, billboards, etc). You can’t reuse what someone else already used (so if 2 people are on on X and its on a license plate in front of us, they can’t both use it). First one to finish the alphabet wins.
We play “I Spy” A LOT.
My daughter is Harlows age, so she mostly points out everything! We hear “car” a lot lol. She also begs for songs. Wheels on the bus, old MacDonald, bingo, y’know, the classics!,
My 6 year old and 11 month old love making mimicking sounds back and forth to each other. The 6 year old loves to play the Alphabet Game. We try to name an animal or food or book title for every letter of the alphabet.
We don’t play car games yet! But they sure do like when I bring my laptop and hook up Mickey Mouse in the backseat or repeatedly sing itsty bitsy spider. They’re living the life I tell ya! (:
I spy and license plate game! Although we don’t see too many other plates here besides Cali.
My son is 6 and just getting into the Alphabet game where we find a word on signs outside the car for each letter. My daughter is 3 and loves I Spy. Both are fun, but my favorite? Someone taught my kids the Quiet Game and they think it’s hilarious. For young ones, they are thrilled that they can go so long without making a sound. It’s a little slice of heaven for me. 🙂
We love to play “I spy”…although my 3 yr old always tells you exactly what she’s looking at. Like “I spy with my little eye that green sign”. It cracks me up every time. There will be lots more road trips in our future when the hub starts his new job 3 hours away. 🙂
With the younger kids we like to play I-spy, with my older niece we try to guess license plates states before we get close enough to read them and see who can get the most right.
we like the license plate game!( liked both pages on fb)
i liked the post on facebook!
My 10 month old loves to play peek a boo with his little mirror. Love seeing that surprised look and big smile when he see’s me in the reflection! Makes my day!
Right now, with my 4 year old, its “I Spy”. My family loved to play the license plate game (for money) on long road trips. We still call each other when someone spies an Alaska or Hawaii plate.. those were the big payouts.
A fav with my 7 year old is the “animal game”. We take turns thinking of an animal while the other 2 people ask yes or no questions until someone guesses the animal 🙂
We don’t play car games yet, my daughter is only 6 months, but I completely agree with no screen time in the car for when she gets older. As she gets older, we will play Ispy, the license plate game, car bingo, those were always my favorites as a kid.
Our favorite car games include singing along to whatever song is on the radio – no exceptions and license plate bingo and for the kiddos(25 mos and 9 mos) it’s what color is that car?
We play a license plate word game on road trips. In Washington state there are three letters on the license plates, and we have to come up with silly three word sayings. The words have to start with each letter. As they got a bit older, we added in restrictions like one word must be a verb, and only one noun. This keeps my girls well and truly occupied during our 13 hour summer car trips to Montana. I can’t wait to teach our newest addition this game!
We like to spot out of state license plates on long trips
My 4 year old can’t ride in the car without asking to play I spy! Every single time! Lol so I guess our favorite game is I spy!
My little girl isn’t quite old enough for car games yet, but I look forward to playing “I Spy..” with her! Mommy and Daddy are currently playing “which car seat to buy next” so winning this would be amazing!!
I like both pages on Facebook! (Facebook name Gina ‘Verburg’ Hiskes). My kids play a special car Bingo that I made for them. They look for blue cars, a tree with a bird in it, aMichigan llicense plate, someone eating while driving, etc. It’s fun!
My little guys favorite game is “eye spy”, “peek a boo” or we sing lots of songs, he enjoys board books as well… for really long car rides (over an hour) we allow his leap pad computer or long road trips (over 3 hours) get a movie.
Currently my daughter is about to turn 4, so she is a big fan of I Spy. Growing up, I loved playing the license plate game, where you would try to see a license plate from each state.
We love to sing praise songs at the top of our lungs!
My favorite road trip game growing up was the ABC game. We would try to find all the letters in order off of license plates, road signs and buildings. The J and the Z were always the hardest! Can’t wait to play with my seven month old when she gets older!
I spy or the alphabet game! Love car games!
We play a lot of Eye Spy with our five year old. Our two year old is perfectly content to just yell at his brother.
Eye spy or state license plates. Mostly we just look at the views though 🙂
My daughter likes “I Spy”, but I enjoy “Statue”, where we see who can sit still and quiet the longest!
My favourite car game by far is I spy. When i was younger and we would go on road trips me and my brother and cousins would always play it. My daughter is only 11 months so a little to young but i cant wait till shes old enough to play !
We love to play Alphabet to see who can find all the letters on signs and license plates first. It makes me nostalgic; that was my brother’s and my fave game as kids, too!
My little boy isn’t quite old enough to play car games yet but Daddy and I loved playing Mad Libs =)
My favorite car game to play with my son is peekaboo. He also likes to listen to CDs from his music class.
My favorite car game is using the numbers on training cars to see who can get the best poker hand. Played it all the time growing up when we drove to my grandparents.
My favorite car game is singing and seeing which one of us can hold the last note the longest. I don’t think my husband is a fan of that one 🙂
The game I’ve always liked playing was tracking how many states we saw on licence plates. I live in PA so we see a lot of pass through trucks covering the northeast. My little guys will be 1 in a month and so he is a tad too young to understand just yet, but I can’t wait to play with him when he is older!! (And we really need another carseat 🙂
Our favorite car games are slug bug with the older ones and peek-a-boo if baby is upset. But, I would loose my sanity without the hand held games!
Finding words that start with each letter of the alphabet. But generally I try to avoid road trips!
We play the license plate game, but, I will admit that sometime we play “who can stay quiet the longest”…It’s usually a very short game! LOL!!
My son is too young of games but I like to sing his annoying kid songs to him really loud to hear him reply “No singing!” It just makes me sing louder 🙂
Now that the kids are older, 12 and 8, oh fyi trying to win for my sister who has a 2 year old and trying for a 2nd one; we play the Alphabet game. Where you try to find words that start with A,B,C and so on. Whew we accept La Quinta for Q and will give you the letter Z anywhere in the word!
I spy keeps them entertained for awhile
Who needs a car game when we listen to the Frozen soundtrack, over and over again? But it keeps them both quiet, so there is that!
If you’ve ever watched Shark vs Eagle you’ll understand. We do first to spot the horse. There is no prize or kudos, just the pleasure of yelling out HORSE! And that’s just the parents.
For the DC we like I spy, although with a 3yo we either get a random object that is nowhere to be seen, or a “yes you’re right”, to whatever we say regardless of what he said it starts with.
We love to play the spot the American flag game! Whoever can spot the most American flags!
We like to sing. My girls are all about singing us the songs they learn in Sunday School. They also like to see how many animals they can spot going down the road.
Making up funny lyrics to songs on the radio!
My favorite car game is the one where I get to pick all the songs and sing them as loudly as I like.
We loved the alphabet game. You had to find the letters, in order before any of the other passengers. The letters could not come from a license plate (unless we were in the middle of nowhere then a declaration would be made that there were too few signs and license plates were legal). Ours is too young for that yet, but I look forward to playing it with her soon!
We like the alphabet game! We use road signs, billboards and license plates in order to build the alphabet. Once someone pulls a letter from the object, that object cannot be used by any one else in the car.
We love to play “I Spy” on long car rides…or if it’s a cloudy day…we like to pick out clouds that look like animals, shapes, etc.
My 2 year old and I “dance” to his favorite Disney songs! While my 7 week old sleeps or stares at his big brother!
She’s still a little young for it – but I loved I Spy and I hope she will too. 🙂
You’ll get a kick out of the hugely different worlds we live in…
We play a game called “my cows.” Every time you see a herd of cows you say “my cows” and you get 2 million points. When you pass a cemetery, the first person to say “your cows are dead” gets to eliminate another players points. Totally lame game, but when you travel through the midwest, it’s about the most exciting game you can play!
Well, considering we just completed a 12 hour car trip to Southern California yesterday… My favorite would be “I Spy” as my daughter plays it which does not involve guessing. My 18-month old sons favorite is the screaming game. He screams, then the rest of us join in until he starts giggling. Loud, but he’s happy so its an option. Or there’s the raspberry game where we blow raspberries until we’re laughing too hard to do more. I’m hoping to transition to quieter games in the near future!
My baby can’t really play games yet, but we sing and look at cars.
My little girl is obsessed with I spy with my little eye. She is three and not super good at the game but as soon as the car is out of the driveway (or even before) she wants toplay. She alao loves singing songs. I can only hope that soon enough the 3 month old can play and sing with her!
We’ve done a LOT of road trips with our 4 boys. Some favorite driving games are: letter animals (each person says an animal with the next letter of the alphabet and then recites the previous list – our kids actually made it through the whole alphabet twice one time!), I spy, I’m thinking of an animal (list 3 things about your animal like color, where they live, what they eat, etc. and everyone else has to guess the animal), next word sentence stories (people take turns adding the next word onto the sentence, but it has to make sense grammatically so “the sock monkey went to the zoo in a blue airplane” is ok but “I purple pennies cat cloud” isn’t). Last year we did give in on the electronics in the car when we drove 5 days on a cross-country move. Now, they’re only allowed on drives longer than 3 hours.
License plates from different states was our favorite
My son is 4 and Autistic. So we sing a lot in the car. We sing Old MacDonald and he helps think of the animals :). Would love for a chance to win this car seat since we have a baby on the way :).
On long road trips my mother used to make me a list of things to find and once I did I got a prize like a coloring book or a deck of cards or something.
Our favorite car game is singing along to the various baby CD’s we have in the car as our little one is too young for “real games.”
We play what’s the first word that pops in your head after each person says their word and rotate around the car. My son inevitably repeats words especially if he things they’re funny, but it works with all my kiddos from 13 down to 4.
My 3 year olds favorite game right now is to sing old macdonald while driving past various animals, vehicles, etc. we make the noises of what she sees out the window. Her other favorite game is to take away whatever her baby brother has in his seat and then make it all better when he starts crying.
Why, we sing Let It Go over and over again, of course! Haha, both of my girls (4 and 17 months) love to sing it with grand arm gestures just like Elsa.
My daughter’s favorite game to play is how many times can I drop that essential item whether it’s her goldfish or her cup of water. I then like to count how many times she ask for it before I am forced to either a.) pull over or b.) wait for a red light and quickly jump to the back of the minivan to pick it up for her. All while hubby is driving, of course. =)
He always gets a kick out of how quickly I move!
The quiet game. 🙂
My daughter, who is 2 1/2, loves to play “Pretend I am a…” She started it in the car back from a trip about 6 months ago and now we play all the time…It can be pretend I am a baby, a mama, a cow, a cashier, a lifeguard…whatever…and I have to then respond appropriately . “Ok, baby, here’s your bottle, take a nap.” And then we switch and I pretend and she responds. It cracks her up so I try to be as outrageous and silly as possible.
My girls and I love playing I spy in the car. We also play what they refer to as the cloud game. We each take a turn looking at the clouds and saying an animal that cloud looks like. Then we say something that animal is doing. Ex: I see a giraffe. The giraffe is dancing. We are expecting our third girl in December, and I would love to try this car seat.
My oldest is just old enough to start recognizing letters so we are starting to play the alphabet game but the youngest is just a year so our favorite game for him is the “please pass out from exhaustion” game.
This carseat would be a great blessing to my daughter and I. I hope we win.
My 2 year old has learned about stop lights and signs and his favorite thing to do is count how many he sees. He also likes to tell Daddy when he is getting….closer, closer, closer…..STOP we’re going to wreck! I think my husband enjoys that part the most….hahaha!
My little girl is only 6 months so we don’t play any games yet except she is so short that trying to see out the window seems like it is pretty entertaining. As of right now.
We used to play the alphabet game, who could find the letters on signs the fastest.
My twin boys are 18 months. They’re not talking much yet, but they love playing the body part game. My husband and I will ask them where a certain body part is and they will show us. We also sing Old McDonald and they’ll attempt to make the animal noises!
I spy!
We play I spy and the quiet game. My older daughter’s favorite is I spy!